Thursday, January 20, 2011

DDBDP / HGV / SoSOL Training Session, March 2011, London

John Sosin announces:

We write with an open invitation to join in a training / information session that we are holding at King’s College London, 7-10 March 2011 (full days Mon-Wed, with an optional morning session Thu). This is the fourth such session that we will have run; and this time we are opening seats to general invitation. Eight colleagues are already enrolled; we wish to invite a further 4-6 attendees. We are especially keen to have more experienced scholars, but will not restrict attendance on that criterion.

As you may know we have been developing a new online tool that allows users to (1) propose changes, corrections, additions, or the like directly to the DDbDP, (2) add translations to existing texts or emend existing HGV translations, (3) propose changes to existing HGV information, or (4) even 'publish' new texts directly to the DDbDP/HGV. This process is not free-form; it is facilitated by peer-review, under a rotating board of editors.

This is a new way of doing business. We hope that it proves better, faster and cheaper, more reliable.

We do recognize that it can be difficult to master new software, but we hope that the above mentioned software will help propel these projects toward a future in which the community shares responsibility for its core data. And so, with a view to facilitating this transition we are inviting a group of colleagues to spend a few days learning to use the new tool, in the hope that you will bring your knowledge back to colleagues and students closer to home, and that expertise in this new platform may spread.

We have funding to underwrite travel to and from London, and accommodation once you are there. If you would like to attend, please let us know (please respond *offlist*, i.e. not over papy-list) right away; we shall be in further contact with accommodation information, etc. Geography depending, we should be able to afford another 4-6 attendees.

We have already held sessions in London, Durham (North Carolina), and Rome; they have been a great success--in part owing to the work done at these sessions, we have entered nearly 1000 new texts in the DDbDP! We hope that this session will be similar in scope and achievement!

If you would like to join us, please let us know as soon as possible. Another session is planned for late July 2011, also in London.

If you wish to learn more about the project please feel free to read the funded proposal: